


Shot In The Dark

by mercutiglo



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gun Violence, Kidnapping, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-09-03 03:04:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16754824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercutiglo/pseuds/mercutiglo
Summary: Rita hasn't shown up for work for a few days so Juno goes to find out what's wrong.(The Graphic Depictions of Violence tag is because it's not necessarily Character Death but it's not a No Tags Apply situation, the violence/wound description isn't necessarily all that graphic)





	Shot In The Dark

Rita was never late. She was more often than not just barely on time, but she never was actually late, so when she didn't show up to work Juno was extremely concerned, but he assumed she must be sick or something, so he didn't worry too much about it. On the second day she didn't show up, Juno assumed there had to be something wrong, and sent her a number of texts as well as called her. Maybe she was in the hospital? He called around any medical facility he could think of, and sure enough none of them had admitted Rita as a patient in the past few days. Since she had not yet answered her phone, he did the only thing left and he went to her house.

When he got there he knew something felt off, so he grabbed his gun out of the glove compartment of his car and put it on the inside of his jacket before getting out of his car and going up to the front door. His eyes were alert, looking around for any signs of a trap or something, but there was nothing that he could see. But he knew that just because he couldn't see something didn't mean it wasn't there. He knocked on the door. "Rita? Are you there?" He thought he heard some noises from the other side, maybe other voices? Who the hell did Rita have over? "Rita, it's Juno, can you come open the door please?"

More rustling and quiet voices and then he heard Rita's. "It's open, Boss, you can come on in." He hesitated before he made the decision to open it. He could tell that there was something wrong with the way she was speaking, she sounded almost scared. He also knew that Rita was not the kind of person to leave her door unlocked, if only at the behest of Juno himself. He moved one of his hands over towards his gun, still holstered, before he nudged open the door. It creaked open slowly to reveal a scene that made his heart drop. Rita was definitely there, but she was tied to a chair in the middle of her living room, while a number of people stood around her, covered in black. There was at least one person visibly pointing a gun at Juno as he opened the door, and he let go of his gun as the door opened, knowing that if they thought he was potentially going to be able to retaliate and shoot back, it would only make things quicker. "Hiya, Boss," Rita said, almost sheepishly, as though she had done something wrong.

"Rita, what's happening? Are you okay?"

She looked at the two people on either side of her. "I'm okay, Boss. But they'll tell ya what's happening," she said as a knife was pulled up to her throat.

"That's right, Rita, we will tell Juno what's happening." The voice came from the person standing next to Rita that wasn't holding a knife to Rita's throat. "We're so glad you could join us, Mister Steel, we were wondering how much longer we were going to have to keep her for until you came to find out what happened. Or else, I mean, we would have found someone else that mattered to you."

"Who are you people? What do you want? Let Rita go, she has nothing to do with whatever you want me for, I'm here now."

"No, Mistah Steel, you don-"

"Quiet, Rita." Juno didn't want her to keep talking, not with a blade that sharp that close to her neck. "Sorry, continue." His voice was laced with poison, trying as best as he could to get the message across that if anything happened to Rita, there was going to be hell to pay.

"We're from a group named Twilight and the people in charge of our organization have quite the price on your head if we bring you back alive." The voice this time came from the person standing next to the door behind Juno, the one still pointing a gun at him. 

"Who the hell is in charge of you people, then?"

"Let's just say that right now it doesn't matter. So what's going to happen is that you're going to answer our questions after you come with us, and you're not going to tell anyone where you're going, or else we'll kill them and you. But it might.... Take a little while, if you know what I mean."

"Unhealthy obsession with torture, who do you work for, Cecil Kanagawa?" 

All three of the people in the room started laughing. "Cecil Kanagawa? That's your best guess? That's ridiculous, and to think, you're actually a detective," one of them said.

"Alright then just tell me, if I'm so bad at this," Juno argued, still worried about how close the knife was to Rita's neck. "Also you've got me here, let Rita go."

"Hmmm...." The person holding the knife said. "A compelling argument. Except she already knows far too much about us and what we do, so if we were to let her go, she would be able to tell the police, other detectives, and you know she made it very clear to us that she's quite handy with a computer, so she could honestly figure out a way to track us down. And while that might make her a hero to some, that would pose serious threats to our operation." 

"No no no no no, Rita is excellent at keeping secrets, she wouldn't tell anyone," Juno really started to worry now, his fingers itching to reach for his gun but trying to act calm, not wanting to upset them and cause any rash decisions to be made. This was not the time to shoot first and ask questions later. 

More laughter from the person holding the knife. "Excellent at keeping secrets? Really? Tell me a little more about Diamond then, Juno." Juno seized up. So he had lied a big one by saying that Rita could keep secrets, so what? "That's what I thought. That's also why we're on the lookout for a number of other people that you know, tracking them so that in case you make the decision to walk away, you know that every single one of them dies."

"So why haven't you just put me in handcuffs or knocked me out or something yet? Just take me and get it over with." Rita seemed like she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite get the words out. "Or better yet why not just kill me too?"

"Oh, well, the payout is better if we bring you in alive. We won't kill you unless we have to." Juno Steel saw a small gesture made by the person that wasn't holding any kind of weapon and Juno Steel heard the gun ring out, and closed his eyes and braced for the pain but didn't feel anything.

Until he heard Rita cry out.

He opened his eyes and saw that she was no longer tied to the chair but there was blood flowing down her torso, her hands clutching at her stomach. Juno saw the two people who had been standing on either side of her coming towards him and then a second later he saw them falling to the floor, limp. His gun was drawn, and he turned around to shoot the person that had shot Rita. That person was escaping into the next room but didn't quite make it, Juno unloading the rest of his clip into them, because they deserved it for hurting Rita. He ran over to her, dropping his now empty gun on the floor next to him. "Come on Rita, move your hands, you're going to be okay, just let me look at it okay?" He gently tugged at her hands, revealing the bullet hole and on top of the fact that he hated the sight of blood, he felt like he was going to be sick. He put her hands back on the wound. "Keep pressure on it, it'll bleed less." He reached around to her back, feeling to make sure there wasn't an exit wound that they would have to contend with. The back of her shirt was dry, which was a relief in that it meant that she wouldn't be able to bleed out as fast, even if that did mean it would require the bullet to be extracted later. "It's gonna be okay Rita, we're just gonna need to get you to a doctor or call an ambulance or something, it's gonna-" All of a sudden Juno felt arms pulling him up and away from Rita. "Hey, get off of me!" he shouted at the figures grabbing him. He knew he had gotten all the people that he had seen in the room, so where had these two come from? "Get the hell off of me! Rita! Get to a doctor!" One of the people holding him then held a rag to his face and it was doused in a smell he knew very well - chloroform. "Rita go.... See a doc...." was all he was able to get out before he had to give in to the effects of the chemical. 

**Author's Note:**

> I WANNA MAKE IT CLEAR THAT I LOVE RITA A LOT OKAY I DON'T DO THIS BECAUSE I HATE HER I JUST DO IT BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA WRITE WHAT YOUR BRAIN SAYS YOU KNOW SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA GO WITH THE FLOW
> 
> ALSO I DID NOT TAG IT WITH CHARACTER DEATH BECAUSE IT'S NOT CONFIRMED THAT SHE'S DEAD OKAY. MAYBE SHE'S DEAD MAYBE SHE'S NOT IT'S UP TO YOU.
> 
> Also if I did something wrong about gunshot wounds or something, look I'm not a doctor. 
> 
> I would say that I promise next time will be something happy but it's not necessarily happy but it's happier than this! I swear!
> 
> I guess kudos if you think it's well written, comment your pains and frustrations and how much you'd like to steal my nose and think i'm satan, OR GO TELL ME WHAT KIND OF HAPPY STUFF I SHOULD WRITE BY MESSAGING ME ON TUMBLR OR DISCORD.


End file.
